=kit092.txt

KIT 92 - HAHUT - CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE UNITY

            As I pronounce the "h" of the word "Allah", not only
the experience of the world and my self-awareness fade away, but
even the memory of these.

"Every time you consider a thing, He will have already escaped
you."
IBN 'ARABI

            The "h" of Allah represents the shift from my sense of
being the subject (the knower) to the take over of God as the
Knower (the Super-eminent Subject).  But where there is a knowing
subject, even if singular, it follows that there is a "known." 
This is dichotomy; consequently, we are still at the level of
duality.  When the "h" is transformed into the hu, however, I am
hoisted beyond multiplicity into unity.

            Let us summarize the steps we have been following.  In
my ascent, I first integrated the objects or thoughts experienced
in the world into a vision of the universe as one being I called
God. Then I shifted my notion of being myself, the knowing subject
shahid, to the One and only Witness.  And now as I by-pass the
al's and la's and ll's of my recitation by intoning the "h" of
Allah, I reach into the state of paramount Hahut.  It is only
accessed beyond the existential realm.

            The letter "h" is the symbol of something that is
absent.

"It stands for the state of non-manifestation of the pure
essence."
IBN 'ARABI

            Paradoxically, even the void in which I thought I lost
myself (in the illa) opens the way to the ultimate reality.  This
even though I cannot experience it: it is self-revealing.  Now the
perspective of the qualities (at the Lahut level)  fades away as I
pull myself away from even the slightest spur of the seeds of the
existential state,

            "The real Being is only and exclusively God in His
essence (dhat) and principle (ayn); not under the aspect of His
names. . . In  the station of unity, touching upon the unity, one
accesses the supreme knowledge whereby the grasp of the qualities
falls away; indeed the qualities cannot add anything to the
essence. . . If  the names disappeared, the Named One would
appear."
(IBN 'ARABI, EVIDENTLY)

            "The one who is immersed in the vision of multiplicity
is in the world in the aspect of the divine names and the names of
the world; and the one who is immersed in the Unity is with God in
the grasp of this unity irrespective of the worlds."
IBN 'ARABI

            "Do not confuse the perfection of the manifestation
through existence, where the essence is individuated (like the
manifestation of the Totality in the parts), with the
manifestation of the essence to itself, in itself and for itself."
JAMI

            I realize that since any sense of being the observer
is vanishing, the only way in which cognizance can take place at
this level is by dint of the fact that my mind is homologous to
the mind of the universe, albeit customized and thereby less
effective (on the holographic model). Any remnant of my sense of
individual identity limits the vastness and splendor of the
thinking of the universe, shattering my faltering mind.

"Knowledge is a veil upon the known." 
IBN 'ARABI

            In Yoga, one would say,  Bodhi  has been resorbed into
its ground:  Purusha.

What is more, one cannot say that one is experiencing fana,
because one is not conscious of being the experiencing subject.
This is called "fana al fana."  One is not aware of not being
aware.

"To be conscious of annihilation is incompatible with
annihilation."
JAMI

            But something in the depths of one's being spells a
kind of premonition of death.  It is the Asamprajnata Samadhi of
Yoga, "parat param",  -  "beyond the beyond". The word fana
assumes its apparently irrevocable meaning.

            Later, upon reflection, I understand al Hallaj:  at
the supreme moment, hanging on the cross after the most atrocious
tortures, there was no more "I am" left to recite the Shahada: la
ilaha illa 'lla - hu. There is a contradiction in affirming the
divine unity if one is aware of oneself as the one affirming it. 
Therefore, at this pinnacle of the mystic's acid test, at the
collapse of any remnant of one's sense of  "I-ness", any human
affirmation is handed over to the supreme and ultimate divine
unifying act.  His last words were:

"It suffices if God alone unifies the mystic in His Unity (wahid-
wajid)."
AL HALLAJ

            Here lies the difference between Yoga and Sufism.  It
is mind-shattering to hear that  this crucial and last sentence of
al Hallaj was the answer to the impudent question asked him by his
erstwhile presumptive friend, Shibli, while he hung bleeding and
agonizing on the cross:  what is Sufism? Indeed, by dint of trying
to reach beyond the edge of their consciousness by isolating
themselves  from the existential realm, the Sufi mystics lend
themselves to the divine action which resorbs them in the Oneness
of His being.

"I see myself when Thou art not before me; when I see Thee myself
is lost to view.  I consider it good fortune when Thou art alone
with me, but when I am not there at all, I think it the greatest
blessing." 
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

            The subtlety of the language used by the Sufis makes
it possible to distinguish different aspects of God.  The word
Allah originated from the word  "luh", which means the One whom I
make into the "worshipped one" by my glorification.  But God
cannot be limited by this aspect of His/Her being that requires
the dichotomy of the worshiper and the worshipped one, which I
bring forth by my worshipping Him/Her.  Nor can it be restricted
to that aspect called Rabb, whereby my manifesting the divine
qualities invested in my nature, I confer upon God a mode of
existence in/as me.  For the "awakened one", the ultimate reality
(called Haqq), by-passing any dichotomy,  takes precedence over
these aspects of God.  Whatever we countenance and ascribe to the
universe as we whirl our head is only the projection or the shadow
of that aspect of God that is denoted as Haqq.  Therefore the
dervish's dhikr is "Haqq la ilaha illa 'lla - hu."  Hence al
Hallaj's famous exclamation:  Ana'l Haqq (I am the truth).

            A zephyr of perplexity may trouble your spirit. The
dervishes evoke this uncanny divine emotion encountered by the
dhakir called hayrah ecstasy, or perhaps beyond ecstasy  sometimes
called the consternation of intelligence.

"This cannot be known by reason, nor conceived by thought; only he
who has attained Divine intuition savors the pure taste of this
total revelation which one calls the "divine unveiling"; and it is
the object of the perplexity, hayrah, of the perfect amongst the
initiated."
AL JILI

"So there is nothing but perplexity upon perplexity." 
IBN 'ARABI

"Be not surprised if God Himself is perplexed!" 
PIR-O-MURSHID INAYAT KHAN

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